Kill all the Chinese and Fire Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel as HitlerI’m not exactly certain how I missed this earth shattering story but apparently a segment of the Chinese-American community is incensed about what a kid said during a Jimmy Kimmel show.

Kimmel has a Kids’ Table segment where he asks young children questions about serious issues the nation and world face. In this case he asked what the country should do about the $1.3 trillion we owe to China.

One young fellow decided that killing all the Chinese was a reasonable solution. Kimmel tried to suggest that perhaps this wasn’t the best idea but quickly moved on to other suggestions. One young girl argued rather persuasively that if we tried to kill all the Chinese they would try to kill us back and that might not be good. The boy countered with the idea that the Chinese would all be dead by that time so we had nothing to fear. In other words, children lobbing childish ideas. It was all rather humorous, if a bit dark.

In the ensuing outrage Kimmel offered an apology for offending anyone of Asian or Chinese heritage. He expressed the idea that the show merely meant to entertain. That they don’t control or condone what the children say.

This apology apparently did not go over well with as many as 1,500 people protesting outside the ABC studio where his show is produced. Jimmy is accused of teaching kids hatred, promoting genocide, and being a general Hitler like figure in the world. A petition to fire Kimmel was posted on the White House website and has generated a significant number of signatures.

I suppose the idea is that Kimmel should have stopped the segment and gotten into a serious discussion about how genocide against the largest population on earth was not a good idea. He laughed, he told them it was a bad idea, they’re kids. End of story.

A large part of me wants to think the entire protest is actually just an attempt at humor but apparently it is not.

I don’t even know how to respond. Should I try logical arguments about how kids say silly things they don’t mean all the time? That kids often say illogical and ridiculous things. Should I point out that Kimmel laughed it off and tried to explain why the idea was bad? Should I tell people being overly sensitive does their various causes no good? Should I try to write a dissertation about humor?

I’m stumped.

I will make one suggestion and I’ve made it before. I’m of Jewish heritage and history is my favorite subject. I know a thing or two about Hitler and the Nazi party. How in the early 1930’s young German women were paraded around town tied to polls and physically assaulted because they refused to call off engagements to young German Jews. How citizens were beaten and even killed for not giving the Hitler salute during parades. How they rounded up disabled children telling parents the children were being taken to schools where they would be treated with the latest medicine, and then killed them.

My advice, don’t compare Jimmy Kimmel to a Nazi, to Hitler. You don’t win me over.

Tom Liberman
Sword and Sorcery fantasy with a Libertarian Ideology
Current Release: The Spear of the Hunt
Next Release: The Broken Throne

10 thoughts on “Kill all the Chinese and Fire Jimmy Kimmel

    • Thank you for the comment, uns0b.

      The Hitler comparisons always get my blood up a smidge but I try to tell myself they know not what they say, just like those kids!

      Come back any time,

      Tom

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  2. First off, thank you. I’m glad there’s at least one person smart enough to notice that the kid made the suggestion, not Kimmel, and that there really was very little he could do besides laugh it off.

    I don’t know about anyone else but, to me, those protesters look like a sick combination of the Westboro Baptist Church and internet trolls.

    Just, seriously. It’s probably not a good thing that I wish that every time people pull the “you’re a Hitler” card that they’d actually have to experience a few days of actual Nazi-Germany conditions.

    And finally, WHY are people calling to have Kimmel fired over something his guest said? That’s like people demanding you take this whole site down because a commenter says something awful.

      • Sorry, I may have come off as angrier than I meant to. I have an Asian friend and she’s right on the “Kill Kimmel” bandwagon and trying to talk to her nicely and logically has been… trying. I may have vented.
        I do see your point, it was a very simple, fairly harmless thing that’s been blown far out of proportion. Certainly not something to call for the ruining of a man’s career over.

        • It’s easy to lose our cool when dealing with people who are looking at things emotionally rather than logically. I’m a victim of that syndrome myself all too frequently. It’s an aspect of my personality that I’m working on!

          We generally make our point more effectively when we keep cool although I will admit there are times when a good angry rant has its place.

          Take care and come back in anytime.

          Tom

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  4. It not about what the kid said. Did you watch the whole segment and his comment. “Should we allow the Chinese to live?” How would you feel if someone made the same comment about your race?

    • I did watch the segment.

      Do you think Kimmel was proposing a serious idea at that point or just rather surprised by the suggestion and taking the point to its ludicrous end?

      Do you think Kimmel actually wants to kill all the Chinese so we don’t have to pay our debt?

      That he is trying to teach children that killing everyone of a race is a good idea?

      I’m asking serious questions there, I’d like to hear your honest answers.

      Have you ever read “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathon Swift?

      Thanks for the comment,

      Tom

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